Due to many clown sightings and disturbing cases of clowns harassing families in the US and UK, the representatives of McDonald's decided to pull out Ronald McDonald as their mascot for a while and announced that they would be taking a hiatus from his physical appearance amidst the situation.
McDonald's was founded in 1940 by Richard and Maurice McDonald. The first restaurant was opened in Des Plaines, Illinois on April 15 by Ray Kroc who made the fast food restaurant chain famous worldwide by opening franchises everywhere. Today, the restaurant chain serves millions of people every day in 119+ countries.
As McDonald's was steadily growing each day, the representatives introduced Ronald McDonald's as the world's "newest, silliest, hamburger-eating-est clown," in 1963. Many were very iffy about the new mascot's arrival, however, as the years went ahead Ronald became the face of McDonald's and helped it gain more success and recognition throughout the world.
Who is Ronald McDonald?
Ronald is a clown character who inhibits the fictional world of McDonaldland. His friends are Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and The Fry Kids. The happy hamburger clown was introduced in 1963 via an advertisement but slowly became the face of the biggest fast food brand.
The clown was loved by all, especially the kids. Many people worked as the famous mascot clown and made appearances in children's hospitals, McDonald's restaurants, and other regular events to entertain the kids and adults too. Every McDonald's outlet has the statute of Ronald McDonald sitting on a bench.
Why did McDonald's retire their mascot?
In case you failed to notice, Ronald McDonald has silently disappeared. While the benches are still there outside the restaurants, the happy clown has stopped making physical appearances anywhere. The reason behind this is pretty disturbing.
In 2016, pictures of creepy-looking clowns in a vacant Wisconsin parking lot were released on the internet as an ad for a horror movie. What was supposed to be an ad turned out to be a nightmare for netizens of the US, as some people began copying these creepy clown attires and began making appearances in the streets.
It started in the name of harmless fun and began taking an ugly turn as many people lodged complaints of being traumatized, harassed, and followed by creepy clowns. Slowly, the appearance grew in different parts of the US and later the UK. The police took this as no joke and worked hard to catch the miscreants. However, things went haywire when on Halloween a massive outbreak of killer clown violence commenced.
Many fancy dress stores had to pull down clown clothes as the reports and crimes increased day by day. This is the main reason the representatives of McDonald's had to take the tough decision of retiring the happy clown Ronald McDonald as the mascot of the brand.
Announcing the hiatus from using Ronald McDonald as the mascot, the UK McDonald's website statement read, "We're afraid that Ronald McDonald no longer appears in McDonald's UK advertising, but he is still very busy working for us. He often travels up and down the country to help promote some of our exciting new activities and visits our restaurants to make sure everyone is enjoying their meals."
Would Ronald McDonald return as the mascot of McDonald's?
At this moment it's tough to say. The happy clown has not been completely excluded from the brand but its physical appearance has been stopped at least in the US and UK, however, with the growing cases of clown sightings, the return of the happy clown as of now is almost a certain no. At first, the clown continued to make its social media presence, but later, that stopped too.
FAQs
Q. Who is McDonald's new mascot?
A. A new mascot called Cactus Buddy is making its way into the upcoming happy meals. However, not many insights have been provided about it.
Q. What is the McDonald's clown's name?
A. McDonald’s mascot’s name is Ronald McDonald.
Q. How old is McDonald's?
A. As of 2022, McDonald’s is 67 years old.
Q. How old is Ronald McDonald?
A. Ronald McDonald was first introduced in 1963. As of this year, Ronald McDonald is 59 years old.
